When I was 9, my mother and father separated. My mother was seeing my future step-father and to get some space, we moved from Southern California to Kingman, AZ.

My step-father had two kids that were my age from his first wife. He would get them every other week. On one weekend, I thought it would be funny and hide then jump out and scare them whey they arrived. I remember climbing up in a tree in the front yard and would wait until they parked and then I would jump down and pounce on them. However, it got dark and they still had not arrived. So I moved my operation into the house. After a quick dinner, I hid behind the couch and my plan was to jump out at some point and scare them.

More hours went by, my mom and sister forgot where I was at (I don’t think I told them, nor did my mom check to see where I was at before she went to bed as I recall) and I grew tired and at some point fell asleep behind the couch. I woke up at some point in the middle of the night. I was a little disoriented until I realized where I was at. I stood up behind the couch to go to my room and I found my step-brother sitting cross-legged in front of the TV very close watching Poltergeist.

He was alone and there was only one way in the room which the entrance was in front of him. I waited for my opportunity, which I cannot remember now, but was timed with a jumpy scene from the move and I pounced. I’ve never seen someone as scared as he was that day. He went into shock and couldn’t move or speak for a couple of minutes. To this day, it was my best scare. Randall would be proud.